Interview Excerpt: Colin Byrne, Creative Director, VCCP, London

CB: If they have just a really beautifully polished piece of design, that has its merits. To survive in this industry you have to be versatile. Being a creative thinker, capable of originating ideas and then bringing them to life beautifully, makes you more employable. The same applies to being able to write and bring the idea to life through language. Don’t think that agencies are merely looking for creatives who can originate ideas—they want people who have a point of view on how the finished product should look and behave, also.

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WS: What do you think of things that aren’t ads and don’t have anything to do with ads?

CB: It’s great to see if someone has other skills that could be put to use and nurtured within the agency. Some agencies look at non-advertising skills and interests over and above industry experience. It’s a creative business so showing some individuality is key, right? I like to see what people are interested in—that they have a geeky side or a techy side. That stuff can be nurtured and put to use; it’s a bonus. If they keep falcons, or got a bronze medal at the Lithuanian Ball Dancing World Cup in 1996, I struggle to see why that makes them more employable.

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WS: Do you have any advice for someone who wants to get into, or is interested in, a digital agency, but they’re coming from a more traditional background?

CB: Explore new places your ideas can go. You don’t need to have an expansive knowledge of emerging technologies and all the latest trends, just an awareness of the tools available to you and a desire to test your ideas in such places to see if they can work harder, sing louder, or simply become even better than they were. Show that you think outside of the TV/print box and you’ll get noticed.